Author's Note: Thanks again to all of you out there reviewing, it is much appreciated! Hope you enjoy this chapter too. But just for the sensitive folk out there, there's a very naughty word in this chapter, so be warned. Now read my pretties!
Chapter 4
At four thirty, Ms Joo Dee dismissed them and ushered them out of the library hastily, following them to the main entrance of the school building and locking the door behind them. She marched back down the corridor with a nervous but smiling glance over her shoulder as they watched her through the glass doors. At the end of the corridor, Mr Long Feng was waiting for her, and Katara snickered again. Zuko gave a soft chuckle and stepped away from the building.
The sky was dark with clouds and the pitter-patter of rain murmured through the empty school-grounds, and murmured again through the empty streets of the city.
"What are you doing?" he asked her as she stepped out from under the shelter and looked up at the sky.
"Standing in the rain," she answered simply.
"Why?"
She smiled and looked at him. "I love the rain. Why not?"
"You'll get sick."
She shook her head. "Not likely. I grew up in the rain. And the cold. And the snow. It was hardly ever sunny where I grew up in the south."
"What's so good about standing in the rain though?"
Katara shrugged. "It helps me think. It clears my head."
Zuko watched her doubtfully, and then stepped out to join her in the rain. It was only a gentle shower. The pitter-patter was steady and light. "What was it like in the south?"
"Colder than this," she laughed. "But I loved it."
"Why did you move here?"
Katara looked down at her feet for a moment and then back up at him. "My dad was sent far away for work. He's a peacekeeper, but his group was sent to the north. It was getting hard to stay down south with just my brother and the small scattering of neighbours, and my grandmother was getting sick. So we moved to the city. We can see our dad a little more often now."
"It's a shame that you don't get to see your dad much. But it's good that you can see him more now."
"We still don't see him much, but every few months for a week is better than every year or two for a day."
Zuko nodded and shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I haven't seen my father in three years."
Katara frowned. "No? Why not?"
He forced a laugh at the question. "When it came out that he was the Red Army leader… that is, when the authorities figured it out… he went underground. One day he was there and the next, he was gone. We'd only just noticed when the police came knocking on the door and asking us questions. So many questions… and I didn't know a thing. I couldn't tell them anything, because my dad never told me a thing."
"Then what? He just never came back?"
Zuko nodded. "Not long after he left, and while we were still getting a lot of questions from the police, my sister disappeared too. She showed up here at school again the other month, but I have no idea where she's living. It's really strange. It almost feels like they died. They vanished without an explanation, just like mum. Except I do know that they're both out there, somewhere. Mum's just gone."
"Do you miss your dad?"
Zuko looked across the schoolyard with an unreadable expression. "Sometimes," he said. "Sometimes not."
"Why not?"
"He isn't much of a father. He gave me this." He ran a hand over the scarred side of his face.
Katara was shocked. "Your dad did that to you? Why?!"
"To be honest, I can't remember. I said something he didn't like. He snapped and grabbed a burning piece of wood out of the fireplace and threw it at me. It was like a giant ball of fire. He grabbed it with his bare hands and just threw it at me. He burned his hands pretty bad, but he didn't care, as long as he'd gotten me."
"That's horrible!"
"Like I said, he isn't much of a father." Katara wasn't sure what to say to him. "Then he left. And he left me behind."
She shrugged. "He left your sister behind too though, didn't he?"
"Not really. Something about the way she reacted to his disappearance told me that she knew where he was. And then she disappeared too, not long after. He told her what to do and how to join him. She's his perfect child. He would never abandon her."
Katara looked down at the ground. "What happened to you once they were gone?"
"I stayed with my uncle. I had basically been living with him since dad burned me. He had some hospital training and I didn't really want to take the incident to the police, so he helped patch me up. And when dad and Azula went, I just stayed there." Katara was left speechless again. He turned to look at her again. "Do you miss the south?"
She smiled at the question. "All the time. It was rarely sunny, but that meant I could really appreciate it when the clouds disappeared. I don't appreciate the sun here."
"What do you miss most?"
Katara thought of the picture she was drawing for Aang. "Sunrise, looking over the half-frozen ocean. The clouds were always over us, but the horizon was usually clear. The sunrise was beautiful." She looked up at the sky again, as if searching out the image she missed most. "I was drawing that when Ms Joo Dee took my sketchbook off me."
Zuko frowned. "She said she put it in the confiscation box in her office, right?"
"Right."
He smirked and turned back towards the school building, indicating for her to follow. They skirted around the school until they were on the other side and Zuko pressed his back against the damp wall next to the window of Ms Joo Dee's office. "I'll bet they're fucking in Mr Long Feng's office." He peeked in and grunted in triumph. The office was empty and the confiscation box sat unattended on Ms Joo Dee's desk. Zuko tried the window and it inched open with only a little bit of resistance.
"What are we doing?" Katara asked, half alarmed and half excited.
"What does it look like?" Zuko said, climbing in. "Wait there." Katara watched him straighten up inside the office and turn to the confiscation box. There was a padlock on the lid and he tugged it once, just in case it wasn't locked. But it was and he started searching the desk for a key. Katara glanced around the school yard beyond the building, but it was just as empty as it had been when Ms Joo Dee had locked them out. When she turned back, Zuko had found a bobby pin and was shoving it into the padlock. He twisted it a couple of times one way, and then back the other way, and frowned in concentration for a moment. Katara held her breath, waiting for the bobby pin to break, or for Ms Joo Dee to walk in. This little mission was taking too long, and she didn't want to know how much trouble they'd be in if they were caught. There was a sudden click, and Katara jumped, thinking it was the office door being unlocked. But it was the padlock, separating her from her sketchbook. Zuko lifted the lid and lifted out Katara's prized possession and handed it to her through the window.
"Yes! Thank you," she smiled.
Zuko locked the box again and threw the mangled bobby pin into the half-filled bin next to the desk. He climbed back out the window. "No worries."
Another click sounded and this time the office door swung open. Zuko and Katara ducked under the ledge below the window and held their breaths. Katara clutched the sketchbook to her chest. She would kill somebody if it was taken off her again. Ms Joo Dee would have to pry it from her cold, dead fingers.
"It's so cold in here! I don't remember opening the window…" Ms Joo Dee's footsteps came towards the window and the two beneath the ledge pressed themselves as close to the wall as they could. "Hmm… what terrible weather."
"Close the window, my dear," Mr Long Feng said. His footsteps came towards the window. "I'll warm you up again."
Ms Joo Dee gave a gasp and a giggle, and a moment later, she slammed the window shut. Zuko and Katara cringed at the thought of what was going on in the office. They glanced sideways at each other and exchanged a traumatized smile. Then, stifling laughter, Zuko grabbed her by the arm and led her away from the window, towards the back of the school grounds.
Author's Note: Ew, Joo Dee and Long Feng... But anyway, what did you think? I hope you enjoyed it, but tell me in a review ;)
